D! – The Big Reveal

It’s finally here! My pants are up and the D! is done! I’ve assembled 2,108, 1.5″ finished squares, combined with larger sections of Kona White to get where I am today. Whew, no wonder I drink so much!

I’ve been working on this quilt top since September 2013 starting with some initial sketches, that led to this pixelated design. I used a spreadsheet, overlaid with shapes, and then colour fills to create it. Don’t you worry, due to popular demand, there will be a design deconstruction once the entire quilt is complete. If you have followed me on Instagram (IG: molli_sparkles) for a while you would have seen this image posted last year. Thanks for helping me keep my D! under wraps!

I told you last week my D! was so large that I needed seventeen people to hold it up. Well, in fact, it only took six! I grabbed my family members on Mother’s Day and put them to work. In the back row you have Mr. Sparkles, his mum, his brother, and his dad. In the front row you’ll see Mr. Sparkles’s brother, and his brother-in-law (which makes him my brother-in-law-in-law?) Obviously, the brother in the front row–Luke–needs some lessons on how to hold a quilt top!

I brought this king-sized D inside to see how it fit on my European Queen bed. Kings on queens, mmm hmm! I am still gaga over the patchwork sea of blues, and I’m so, so happy I included the Supernova print with the flecks of yellow (Supernova in Gray and Teal). It was originally going to be cut from the fabric lineup, but now I see it adds a counter-balance to the blue. Flecks of golden glitter, I dare say?! Damn gurl, look at all those perfect points. Yessss, I will pat myself on the back!

Uh oh. That is some serious over-hang. I now realise that I designed the D entirely too big. I thought I could get away with it, and shrink the hell out of it. No amount of shrinkage is gonna make this D go down, so I’ve started thinking about a re-design. I am definitely not in love with those floppy ears, and how it lays on the bed. So expect something a little bit different, when I show it to you post-quilting. (As in, I’ve already taken the seam ripper to it).

And what about that quilting?! I am in consultation with Gemma of Pretty Bobbins to do an edge-to-edge design featuring either stars and moons, or some diamond geometrics. White thread? Ice blue? Variegated? If you have any quilting ideas, feel free to drop me a line. I am going to use the Supernova in Purple print in conjunction with other Constellations scraps for the hand-sewn binding. As much as I have enjoyed working on this one, I’m glad it’s nearly done, because I am spent! And I’m not even fakin’ it!

You thought D! stood for dick, didn’t you? I would never!  Disney, my dears, D for Disney!